Paris: the City of Light and possibly sewage

Ever since my last banana and Nutella crepe off the streets of Paris, I’ve been waiting to return. In fact, I told Becca four years ago that I would have to bring her back some day to be introduced to the other loves of my life. Upon arrival from Switzerland, we noticed immediate changes between the two spots: 1) The air freshness…is lacking 2) There are a LOT of humans in this city 3) The urban air probably has a faint scent of urine because of people like the delivery guy we saw, full frontal, peeing on the street in the middle of the day. Yes, a bit of an abrupt change. But much has remained the same: 1) Crepes should be their own food group - they are the most versatile food on the planet. Or maybe I’m just saying that to justify the breakfast crepe, dinner crepe, and dessert crepe regimen we started out hot with. 2) Even a second time through, my head is spinning with history lessons from the city. 3) There are so many gorgeous historical buildings, you can grow immune to them quickly (‘Oh, another palace? Great. Seen better. Next!’)

            We’ve linked up and formed a formidable travel quad with Aaron Fried and Katie Pappas, two proud BC alums and even prouder new Omahans. Aaron and I are just recently reviving our souls from the recent shell shock of Step 1 boards, and it has taken a seriously concerning amount of European comfort food to do so. Nothing one or thirty crepes can’t fix, of course. We ran a few minutes late meeting them, as Becca needed to make an emergency Parisian hat purchase, but found them in front of our cozy penthouse AirBNB rental. Cozy penthouse, of course, translates to air-conditionless attic with occasional wafts of sewage. We haven’t located the origin quite yet, but the sink/the street outside are the leading culprits. No less, this was in a fantastic location, so we set out over the next three days and put our Fitbits to the test.

Some Stats

            Luckily, those two run the same style of Smashmouth tourism offense that Becca and I do. We don’t have much time in Europe, so we basically take week-long vacation plans and jam them into 2-3 days and call it good. Over the first week, Bec and I walked 73.4 miles, averaging just over 10 per day and over 23,000 steps per day.  My Fitbit at one point asked me if I was lost, drunk, or needed a taxi, as during the Step 1 study period I averaged about 300 steps per day if I didn’t go on a morning jog, and most of those were just to the bathroom and back. Fatigue is setting in, but morale is high, don’t worry fans.

            Day 1 highlights included the following:

-       Lunch crepes

-       Dinner crepes

-       Notre Dame cathedral - even though the American version of the school is the enemy of…basically everyone except themselves, this building itself is amazing

Could the 7,000 of you get out of my pic really quick?

-       The Seine and its innumerable gorgeous buildings we can’t even name

-       The con artists lining the streets probably making 6-figure salaries off tourists

-       The Louvre and its gardens – Aaron wondered aloud “This almost looks like a palace,” and an extremely random and convenient American walking by unexpectedly chimed in “actually, it was multiple palaces built by multiple kings over a long period.” “…Oh, well…alright, thanks man!” we shouted as he dissipated into thin air. 

Some priceless art seen in the Louvre gardens

-       Eating a baguette and crepes on the curb in front of the Eiffel tower, while illegal beer and Eiffel Tower keychain vendors begged us to purchase their goods

-       Ending the night learning French from our movie-crazed cab driver. Upon telling him we came from Nebraska he rattled off his three favorite movies filmed in Nebraska, followed by a separate list of his “Top 3 favorite Sean Penn movies.” I was barely able to name three of either category.

The last point is worth expanding on. I am not in business school like Aaron now is (MD/MBA route – if anyone is looking to hire a doctor that actually has a remote sense of what a “budget” is). But, my self-made father and my lame but fairly smart older brother have imparted a fair amount of haggling skill upon me. Several gentlemen from the Middle East confronted us to do just that over some trinkets and miniature ½ -pint European beers. Being in Paris amongst royalty with way too much money caused us to transform ourselves to act like we weren’t in a crippling state of debt, whisking away potential suitors with a flick of the wrist at times, as if their goods didn’t meet our royal standards. At least we know we’re headed somewhere with our loan repayment, though. Our suitors, on the other hand, depend on every beer they sell to get by…so Aaron and I made sure they weren’t going to make any off us. Kidding. Based on the principle of making a gentleman’s deal, though, both sides needed to be getting a fair shake. Dismissing our “suitors” one by one was some of the most fun I’ve had here, but explaining a lesson in basic economics and mathematical rationale to our Arabic salesmen was a futile task. “3 beer, 10 euro, good price foh’ you,” they’d say. “Nope, not good enough.” “OK 3 beer, 9 euro” “No. Bye.” “3 for 8!” “Merci, but no.” “6?” “4 for 4.” “4?! No…” * Suitor begins to walk away * “…”4 for 5?” “Done.” * Exchange, suitor walks away, dejected. No worries, we made sure they hauled in .13 Euro per peer – go get yourself something nice, fellas. They prowl and prowl, all sell the same products, and the only separating quality is the temperature. Some would just come up and put the beer on your neck to show their product superiority. Here’s a market that could be absolutely shattered if someone a) sold a different product or b) had ice or c) the suitors spoke English.

 The greatest victory of all, though, would be Day 2 on the hill of Sacre Couer, but more on that tomorrow. For now, enjoy some more pics:

Parisian locals are so cool!